New Pa. Open Records law helps author uncover more information on mine fire
by Mark Gilger
The [Pottsville] Republic-Herald
Former News-Item and Patriot News reporter David DeKok has written a revised and updated book about the mine fire in Centralia that details the relocation of residents, demolition of most of the town and the resistance of a few diehards.
Nearly 25 years after he wrote "Unseen Danger: A Tragedy of People, Government, and the Centralia Mine Fire," Globe Pequot Press has published DeKok's "Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire."
The 285-page paperback book contains three new chapters and other changes from the original, and takes the story to the present day. The book explains how the mine fire began and how government officials failed to take effective action to stop it.
By 1981, the fire was spewing deadly gases into homes. DeKok describes how the people of Centralia banded together to finally win relocation funds and reveals what has happened to the few remaining residents as the 50th anniversary of the fire nears.
Some of the new material in "Fire Underground" includes:
Almost 50 of DeKok's vivid photographs of Centralia, many of which are in color, are contained in the new book.
For much of its history, Centralia had an approximate population of 2,000. But by 1981, the population had dwindled to just over 1,000, which wasn't unusual for a one-time mining town, DeKok points out. But as of 2007, Centralia had become the state's smallest municipality with a population of nine.
DeKok has been reporting on the Centralia mine fire for more than 30 years. While working at The News-Item in Shamokin from 1975 to 1987, he wrote more than 500 stories about Centralia's plight. His first book was published in 1986. DeKok, who is a native of Holland, Mich., lives in Harrisburg with his wife, Lisa Brittingham, and their two daughters, Elizabeth, 16, and Lydia, 12.
"Pennsylvania's new Open Records Act, which took effect at the beginning of 2009, greatly aided my research," DeKok said in a telephone interview Saturday. "I was able to see Department of Environmental Resources files that had been denied to me in 1982. In addition, Columbia County Redevelopment Authority's extensive files on the Centralia relocation were available to me."
DeKok, who returns to Centralia several times a year to take new photographs, said, "There's not much left of the town compared to 1983. I wrote the book to bring the story to the present day. My first book ended in 1984 with the start of the relocation project. The new book discusses the imminent domain action taken by the state and the dramatic differences in the town. The maps show that the fire moves about 50 feet per year."
In addition to the relocation of almost all of its residents, the other biggest emotional issue in the new book involving Centralia is the fate of the grave sites in St. Ignatius Cemetery. DeKok said debate exists between the Diocese of Harrisburg and the state over ownership of the cemetery, which sits behind a plot of land where St. Ignatius Church stood for many years.
DeKok said his new book is available for sale at a list price of $18.95 at Barnes and Noble in Camp Hill and online at www.globepequot.com. The book also can be purchased at Amazon.com and other locations at reduced prices.
DeKok also is working on publishing a new book about a typhoid fever epidemic in 1903 in Ithaca, N.Y.
The [Pottsville] Republic-Herald
Former News-Item and Patriot News reporter David DeKok has written a revised and updated book about the mine fire in Centralia that details the relocation of residents, demolition of most of the town and the resistance of a few diehards.
Nearly 25 years after he wrote "Unseen Danger: A Tragedy of People, Government, and the Centralia Mine Fire," Globe Pequot Press has published DeKok's "Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire."
The 285-page paperback book contains three new chapters and other changes from the original, and takes the story to the present day. The book explains how the mine fire began and how government officials failed to take effective action to stop it.
By 1981, the fire was spewing deadly gases into homes. DeKok describes how the people of Centralia banded together to finally win relocation funds and reveals what has happened to the few remaining residents as the 50th anniversary of the fire nears.
Some of the new material in "Fire Underground" includes:
- How Centralia's small town innocence was shattered in 1961 by the murder of 13-year-old Jane Mary Benfield by out-of-town sexual predator, Frank Earl Senk, whose trail ended in a death sentence in 1962 about a month before the tragic events leading to the start of the mine fire.
- How the "conspiracy theory" that the government is after Centralia's supposed coal bonanza took hold and why it logically doesn't make any sense.
- How Bishop Nicholas C. Dattilo of Harrisburg flew to Centralia in a helicopter and pressed Columbia County Redevelopment Authority to acquire St. Ignatius Cemetery in Centralia and move the graves to another Catholic cemetery 10 miles away. Heat from the mine fire is already melting snow in a small corner of the burial ground.
- Maps discovered by the state Department of Environmental Resources only in 1985 showed a clear path for the Centralia mine fire to reach the nearby town of Mount Carmel, albeit decades from today.
Almost 50 of DeKok's vivid photographs of Centralia, many of which are in color, are contained in the new book.
For much of its history, Centralia had an approximate population of 2,000. But by 1981, the population had dwindled to just over 1,000, which wasn't unusual for a one-time mining town, DeKok points out. But as of 2007, Centralia had become the state's smallest municipality with a population of nine.
DeKok has been reporting on the Centralia mine fire for more than 30 years. While working at The News-Item in Shamokin from 1975 to 1987, he wrote more than 500 stories about Centralia's plight. His first book was published in 1986. DeKok, who is a native of Holland, Mich., lives in Harrisburg with his wife, Lisa Brittingham, and their two daughters, Elizabeth, 16, and Lydia, 12.
"Pennsylvania's new Open Records Act, which took effect at the beginning of 2009, greatly aided my research," DeKok said in a telephone interview Saturday. "I was able to see Department of Environmental Resources files that had been denied to me in 1982. In addition, Columbia County Redevelopment Authority's extensive files on the Centralia relocation were available to me."
DeKok, who returns to Centralia several times a year to take new photographs, said, "There's not much left of the town compared to 1983. I wrote the book to bring the story to the present day. My first book ended in 1984 with the start of the relocation project. The new book discusses the imminent domain action taken by the state and the dramatic differences in the town. The maps show that the fire moves about 50 feet per year."
In addition to the relocation of almost all of its residents, the other biggest emotional issue in the new book involving Centralia is the fate of the grave sites in St. Ignatius Cemetery. DeKok said debate exists between the Diocese of Harrisburg and the state over ownership of the cemetery, which sits behind a plot of land where St. Ignatius Church stood for many years.
DeKok said his new book is available for sale at a list price of $18.95 at Barnes and Noble in Camp Hill and online at www.globepequot.com. The book also can be purchased at Amazon.com and other locations at reduced prices.
DeKok also is working on publishing a new book about a typhoid fever epidemic in 1903 in Ithaca, N.Y.